I was just curious what HO releases everyone is excited about. Sometimes it's amazing what you don't hear about in general conversation.
I realize I should have EAS Engine Acquisition Syndrome, but really I have a stack of old Athearns that need decoders and details, a couple of engine projects and more rollingstock kits and projects than I know what to do with, plus I'm a bargin hunter, so I'm not excited about much of anything right now. Although I'd love to see Atlas re-release the Phase 1 GP39s in ATSF Cub Scout and Portland & Western (especially if they fix the paint color.) I would buy at least one of each.
I guess it depends on what you are interested in. Athearn RTR and Genesis has had a lot of new items in the past 6 months. I have bought 6 SD45's from those releases alone (2 SP, 2 UP and 2 D&RGW). GP9's are coming in various road names, and of course GP38-2's. Atlas has slowed down quite abit but reports they have nearly cleared up their production issues so hopefully things will begin to pick up for Atlas again.
And yet more SD45's, also from Proto 2000! I have the old P2k SD9's and as much as I'd like a better shade of orange (D&RGW), the prices is probably about 3 times what I paid, so I can't bring myself to spring for them. Genesis is got GP9's coming and since those have never been available in HO for D&RGW, I do plan on getting one of those! And btw, SP bloody nose GP9's are on the way too! oh my!
Well, as long as these new RTR cars coming out from various manufacturers ( Like the B&O Wagon Top Boxcars, for example) for $35-40 bucks or more, why should I be excited? I bought a Cabot Carbon Black Car kit last weekend for $32, but that was a need... and there was no excitement, just pain.
After 2011 and this past January - hope we'll have a little calm in the new products excitment category. I do my very best to live within my retirement income but the last 4 months especially have been tough. Athearn had their GP-9 in SAL, I-M their FT in SAL, These are iconic in my book for the Seaboard Air Line - gotta' have 'em! And, modelling the period 1957-67, how many gotta have 'em freight cars could there be? As it turned out - a lot! I-M released new FGEX cars in 5 or 6 variations, Red Caboose their 1937 AAR box car in a couple of road names I really wanted. Atlas ditto with their steel rebuilds in even more road names. Nope, I'm waiting with mixed feelings over some items yet to be released: 3 additional numbers for Athearns GP-35, BLI's SW in he ACL "black maria" colors and then there's the rumour that Athearn will be releasing the GP-7 in "black maria." Them, I'll need all 4 numbers,
I could probably use some GP35's also since they were still common in freight trains on the D&RGW and I only have 2 KATO's right now. Good thing is I have 90% of what I need now and only need to fill a few holes, GP9 being one of them and SW1200 is another.
Athearn's Genesis GP7s are sorely needed, and welcome- especially when the Frisco-painted ones come out! Thing is, I already have 5 GP7s (three Front Range, one Proto2000, one Atlas), sooooo............... but I would like one with DCC and sound already installed, but I could do that (hopefully) with a plug-n-play version......oops, sorry, out-loud self-justification. I'm reserving judgement on the Genesis GP38-2s, as I'm pretty much flush in that area, but from what I've seen in the ads & promo videos they look nice. I model the '70s, so these are the kinds of diesels I'd be looking for.
I agree, they would look nice, and may keep you from having to paint & decal your own. However, THAT is another avenue you may consider (take it from someone who's modeled Frisco from back when factory-painted,accurate models just weren't available). AS for the kit-and-rolling-stock project issue, I feel yer pain.....................I have several rolling stock kits awaiting assembly, plus 3 building kits, PLUS tracklaying, wiring.....don't think I'll ever see the bottom of the to-do list in the train room, but hey, that's model railroading.........at least we won't be bored.
I'm INTERESTED in the new releases, but can't manage much excitement with the prices and/or "pre-ordering" policies. I forked out over $200 for a locomotive just ONCE in my railroad hobby life, and I don't think it will happen again (it was exciting though!).
Well, in this case it may not be any easier to just find the phase 1 gp39-2 in any paint scheme much less the one I need. They are out there, but there aren't many.
Rising prices is hitting us all hard. As some luck would have it, most of the engines I've been buying lately are the Athearn RTR which street prices has remained (so far) about $85. I don't think I can spring for $200 for a single loco so I'll have to settle for non-sound I guess, at maybe $120 but I'll only get one or two max. I'm just wondering when Athearn will get around to finally doing the last batch of D&RGW tunnel motors, one class left to go.
That's my problem as well. What I find interesting is that a lot of the guys at the club buy Bachmann almost exclusively now. They replace the decoders, but I see plenty of Bachmann there and not just the Spectrum stuff. Occasional Athearn RTR and Genesis for the modern people, but for the most part, it's Bachmann...or it's MTH and BLI. There's a giant hole in the middle. People are either well off and can afford it all, or they're struggling and get by one what they can afford.
That is interesting, and I have heard that Bachman has been improving their HO items. I don't own any Bachman at present, and the only Bachaman I ever had was a pair of the Spectrum F40PH's, but I sold them when Walthers Trainline F40PH's came out, which where a little more accurate despite being a low cost diesel. The older Bachman diesel line were not very good in terms of fidelity, and even the normally fluffy and generous Model Railroader magazine reviews were critical of them, at least up until the last 5 to 10 years. I've noticed the RS3 that came out looked pretty decent and they did a D&RGW version. Some guys were running their FT's in front of a BLI California Zephyr at a train show and they ran well, although D&RGW's FT's had some modifications which the models didn't replicate. I was just pondering on the D&RGW Yahoo Groups list when Athearn would make another run of tunnel motors and then a fellow reminded me that factory in china which manufactured Athearns RTR line has been shut down, so it looks like we won't see any new RTR items from Athearn for many months, perhaps well over a year - the Genesis line is still going forward and apparently unaffected. Atlas's presedent Tom Haedrich stated "It has taken Atlas four years to deal with the problems at hand. We are very close to resolving almost all difficulties" so hopefully we'll see more product announcements from them, they had really slowed down in the last two years. Well, these slow downs aren't all bad. There has been a lot of items I wanted to buy but couldn't keep up with the breakneck pace of production over the past 4 years. So I'm slowly hunting down and filling in my wish list, so I'm thankful in a way for a slow down in new items! As it is we still have more by window cabooses coming, and GP9's etc.
The other part of it is that I have so many projects that even if I can come up with some decent $$ to spend, I can't justify spending it all on one super-nice loco. Prices are up on everything, so once I buy paints, decals, detail parts, etc. for my projects, the kitty is gone. I DID splurge recently (I sold some old car models on ebay) and get an A-B-A set of Norfolk Southern F9/F7 Executive Train diesels (Athearn RTR A-B set and a Bachmann A) for about $90.00. That's not going to happen very often though, because I've about ran out of things to sell.
jimfitch - I have picked up a couple of Bachmann locos recently - a GP38 and just a few weeks ago that Norfolk Southern Executive F7. Not high end pieces by any means, even among the Bachmann offerings, but they run decent and in the case of the F7, the painting and graphics were superior to the Athearn RTR. So I think Bachmann is getting better than we used to think.
Bachmann is hit or miss. The GE 44 and 70 tonners are praised. The GP40 is actually the old Atlas/Roco shell. In 1980 it was awesome. in 2012... Actually with a little work and some Cannon&Company parts, you can turn it into a fine loco. The Bachmann steamers are really really good, but they aren't particularly cheap. The Bachmann F-units look decent to me. I'm not sure about the GP38s and other non-spectrum stuff.
I never cared for the globe tooled F shell and was so glad when alternatives came on the market, such as Stewarts and others. Much of Athearns RTR stuff is very nice however, especially the SD45's and tunnel motors!!! I may spring for a Bachman geep one of these days, they do look much improved.
Yeah, the Bachmann Fs look so much better than the old Globe tooling. Although if you can fix the windows on the Athearn it becomes less offensive. Pretty much everything else in Athearn's RTR line is good looking.
